Kareedouw
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Kareedouw or Kareedowns is a town in the
Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
province of
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. It is the administrative centre for the
Kou-Kamma Municipality The Kou-Kamma Municipality is a local municipality in South Africa. It is situated in the southwest corner of the Sarah Baartman District Municipality along the Indian Ocean coastline, in the southwestern sector of South Africa's Eastern Cape P ...
in the Sarah Baartman District of the Eastern Cape.


History

The town's name derives from the
Khoi Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...
phrase "karee" meaning "praise". The town was established by white settlers around the year 1750.


Tourism

Kareedouw is the gateway to the
Langkloof Mountains The Langkloof Mountains are a short mountain range within the Cape Fold Belt in the Western Cape of South Africa. They form a link between the Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma mountains to the north of Plettenberg Bay in the Garden Route region. They ...
; 120 km from
Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...
. It nestles between the Tsitsikamma and Suuranys Mountains. A popular activity is
4x4 Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
trips through the Suurveld, Kouga and Baviaanskloof Wilderness areas, canoe trips on the
Kouga River The Kouga River originates near Uniondale, Eastern Cape, South Africa, and flows eastward, where it joins the Groot River to form the Gamtoos just past the Kouga Dam. Its main tributary is the Baviaanskloof River, which joins its left bank befo ...
, and camping and hiking trails.


Notable residents

One important person connected to the town is John Vorster, prime minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978, who had a house on the coast and is buried in the cemetery next to the
Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...
. * Balthazar Johannes Vorster lies buried under a large black marble slab in "heroes' acre" in the remote Eastern Cape town of Kareedouw, at the foot of the Langkloof. ... As late as 2002, the Kareedouw hospital still treated black and white patients at separate entrances...


Locations

There is a Kareedouw Peak and a Kareedouw Pass. The Tsitsikamma mountains are a mountain range located in the Garden Route region of the southern South African coast in the
Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
and Eastern Cape provinces. They stretch just over 80 km from the
Keurbooms River The Keurbooms River ( af, Keurboomsrivier) is a river in the Western Cape Province in South Africa. The river has its sources south of Uniondale in the Langkloof and flows in a roughly southeastern direction. It passes De Vlugt and the Prince A ...
in the west just north of Plettenberg Bay, to Kareedouw Pass in the east. The Formosa Conservation Area is adjacent to the Jagersbos farm, about 15 km west of Kareedouw. There are medical and pharmaceutical facilities, the provincial B.J. Vorster Hospital, a public library, and a Lutheran Missionary Monument at or near Kareedouw.


References

{{Sarah Baartman District Municipality Populated places in the Kou-Kamma Local Municipality